Repair cracked dash speaker panel

[87GNSteve]

I repaired a few of these, but the under side which is never in view I use a lot of JB Weld and I cut some metal coat hangers to reinforce areas that are prone to sag and crack and embed them in the JB Weld like re-bar.

 

[wb's87]

The hardest part was removing the 9 small torx screws. They're hard to get to because of the windshield. I took the torx bit off my screwdriver and it fit into a 1/4" socket, then put that onto a swivel adapter. Take the panel out carefully if it's partially cracked, mine had a snug fit and I didn't want to snap the panel in two. Hope this helps.


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This thread is inspiring me to fix mine. Thank you. Mine is cracked in 3 places. I was thinking that maybe the dash had to come out. This has been bothering me for a long time. Especially when I enter a car show. Lol


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[Gunmetal87]

Here's some pics of twilight sentinel clip. Was brittle when removing and one side broke off. Same technique but used staple instead of paper clip.

After this just one more plastic piece to fix. Dash where parking brake release handle goes in is also broken.


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[earlbrown]

Back in my roadracing days there was many a drunken night in the tower welding up bodywork with a soldering iron...


Here's a helpful tip. If you superglue the area first, then start welding and notice your eyes burning like a thai hookers crotch... it's the cyanide gas being released from heated super glue. So be careful.

It does seem to make the welds stronger though.

 

[jlat]

hello people; I never heard of JB weld for plastic. I have to repair mine also.
IBBY

 

[GNONYX]

hello people; I never heard of JB weld for plastic. I have to repair mine also.
IBBY

Go to Walmart in the auto section, real cheap

 

[Gunmetal87]

hello people; I never heard of JB weld for plastic. I have to repair mine also.
IBBY

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[jlat]

hello people; Has anyone had any luck reparing that panel but the area I need fixin is where the speaker grill is Looks like it might be a pain as the panel is so thin there.
IBBY

 

[suluman78]

hey jlat, I got the same problem on mine, I'm going to give it a try, come spring, maybe with a staple like he did with the sentinel?

 

[TurboSmart]

Get a plastic coat hanger and "melt" the grill pieces.

glue them using the staple and JB weld method here.


I even repaired a grill with this method!

Also, for leaving the screws loose, you will prevent cracking but promote rattling.
dab the screw in black silicone to make a small donut under it. then screw them back

 

[GNONYX]

A little more sanding, apply duplicolor adhesion promoter, and Kirban's interior paint, and finally finish this project and then start on other project.
I did as Gunmetal87 did, but this time I used a straight small piece of paper clip piece & melted in just past flush area, and then used JB weld to hold it in.
I also used some JB weld around the screw area so the screw won't go through, even though it won't be tighten down.
I will post more when all is finish.

 

[jim0207]

Wanted to see if I could repair speaker panel. The split was about 3/4 ways though.
I used a soldering iron to spot weld underside of crack. Then got a thin paper clip and cut and bent zig zag pieces to use as reinforcement Using soldering iron I heated zig zag pieces into plastic, sand smooth, then applied JB plastic weld.
On the top, used soldering iron to melt a grove into the crack, sanded smooth, then fill with JB plastic weld and sand smooth again.
Cleaned, liightly scuff with scotch brite, duplicolor adhesion promoter, then 3-4 coats of Kirban's interior paint.

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The speaker panel finish is a orange peel finish. After sand the sanded area is smooth. How did you get the orange peel finish in the sanded area?

 

[jim0207]

This thread is inspiring me to fix mine. Thank you. Mine is cracked in 3 places. I was thinking that maybe the dash had to come out. This has been bothering me for a long time. Especially when I enter a car show. Lol


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Check out how I cleaned my steering wheel

 

[Gunmetal87]

The speaker panel finish is a orange peel finish. After sand the sanded area is smooth. How did you get the orange peel finish in the sanded area?

On top side of panel crack, I melted the seam as small and narrow as possible for JB weld. I used scotch brite pad to lightly scuff surrounding area to blend the texture down a little before painting. All the heavy duty patching is on the underside.

If your area is too smoothed out to hide, homedepot has texturing spray. Add it after adhesion promoter then buff down with sand paper to your liking, primer before paint. Try sample spray first because I haven't tried it yet. There is a company that makes a texture coating for fixing plastic car bumpers.
Hope this helps.




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[GNONYX]

I'm going to try a certain way of obtaining that orange peel look
First, I want the dash speaker panel plastic to be very warm so I'll wait to the early summer weather.
Once the weather is warm then I will spray the duplicolor adhesion promoter, use the Kirban's interior paint, but spray a distance away from about 12" to 14". Moving side to side spraying, and hoping the warm sun will start to dried the paint as it hits the dash plastic giving that orange peel look.
I will try this on a piece of plastic before doing on the actual dash speaker panel.